Dr. Tanguy Seiwert on the Increasing Efficacy of Immunotherapies in Head and Neck Cancer

Tanguy Seiwert, MD, associate program director for Head and Neck Cancer, assistant professor of Medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the activity of immunotherapy in head and neck cancers. Seiwert says in general, immunotherapies produce a response rate of between 20- to 25%, 1 in 4 patients respond, and the treatment type is equally effective in both HPV-positive and HPV-negative disease.

Seiwert says preliminary survival outcome data shows patients that were heavily pretreated have a median survival of about 10 months. Seiwert says these numbers are on par with patients who undergo "more extreme" regimens as a treatment for their head and neck cancers.